acme
/ˈakmi
/- And until we do the same, we shall forever be trapped within the prison-house of our preferences, by our Darwinian sense that youth, vigour and health represent the prime of life and the acme of desirability.
- Within a few years, he established a reputation as a first class tailor, and at 17 he decided to leave for the United Kingdom in an audacious attempt to make a reputation on Saville Row, the international acme of sartorial elegance.
- It is the acme of romanticism; I devoted most of a year's worth of high school study halls to it, along with all of the volumes of Dumas's Three Musketeers series, which I inherited from my grandmother.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Greek akmē 'highest point'. Until the 18th century it was often consciously used as a Greek word and written in Greek letters.
In Greek akmē meant ‘point’ or ‘pinnacle, highest point’. Its use in English dates from the late 15th century, although for the next hundred years or so it was consciously used as a Greek word and written in Greek letters. For many people their first exposure to the word comes from the ‘Looney Tunes’ cartoons featuring the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, where the characters buy products from the Acme company. ‘Acme’ was a real brand name for various US firms in the last two decades of the 19th century, chosen in part because the word comes near the top of any alphabetical list of suppliers. Acne (mid 19th century) the skin condition, has a similar root. The idea is that all those red pimples are little points sticking up from someone's face.